Written by Alice Chambers |
Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers, which operates in retail, chemicals, fertilizers, industrial products and safety products, is expanding the use of AI, powered by Microsoft, across its operations.
The partnership will see Wesfarmers use Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and cloud technologies to embed agent AI across its divisions, including Blackwoods, Bunnings, Kmart Group and Priceline. This move is aimed at increasing team productivity and improving customer experience.
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Wesfarmers already uses Copilot licenses across multiple teams. At Bunnings, AI-powered assistants give store teams access to product information, operational updates, and organizational knowledge, allowing them to spend less time searching and more time focusing on customer interactions.
“Our partnership with Microsoft supports our increased use of AI across the group and we are already seeing benefits from using Copilot, particularly at team member level,” said Rob Scott, managing director at Wesfarmers. “This agreement continues our collaboration with Microsoft to expand our innovative cloud services in priority areas, increasing productivity and improving the customer experience.”
The new deal will more than double Wesfarmers’ Microsoft 365 Copilot footprint. Microsoft provides built-in engineering support, deployment frameworks, and governance models to help you move your AI projects from pilot to full production.
The partnership will also focus on skills and training to enable teams to use AI tools effectively and responsibly and extract maximum value from emerging technologies.
Joe Dooley, vice president of enterprise for Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, said: “Together, we aim to deliver scalable, secure and responsible AI solutions that improve both employee and customer experiences and set new benchmarks in retail transformation.”
